Long conveyor systems require vast amounts of energy to run and have a direct impact on the operating costs of mining operations. A large portion of the energy losses from the conveyor belt system is attributable to the viscoelastic hysteresis of the rubber like material which is utilized in manufacturing the conveyor belt. As a section of the conveyor belt passes over a roller that supports the conveyor belt along its path of travel, that section of the conveyor belt locally deforms to match the shape of the roller. Once that section of the conveyor belt is past the roller, the deformation recovers. A significant amount of mechanical energy is consumed by viscoelastic hysteresis and transformed into heat buildup through the repetition of this cycle at each roller.
Conventional conveyor belt designs of the prior art have addressed this problem of energy loss by manufacturing the belt with rubber compounds which exhibit less hysteresis and accordingly results in less heat generation and a lower lovel of low rolling resistance. Such low rolling resistance rubber compounds allowed for less heat loss during the deformation and therefore reduced the amount of energy used as the conveyor belt passed over rollers. However, the utilization of low rolling resistance rubber belts results in only a small reduction in energy consumption as compared to conventional conveyor belts. Since the operation of large conveyor systems consume a tremendous amount of energy there is still an opportunity to save a massive amount of energy by improving the overall efficiency of such conveyor systems by utilizing belts that exhibit reduced levels of hysteresis. Naturally, the savings that can potentially be attained are proportionate to the size of the conveyor systems that utilize wide and long belts offering enormous savings potentials. Even a small improvement in efficiency can offer large cost savings because the energy requirements for operating some of the mammoth belts used in the mining industry is staggering. There accordingly is a long felt need for more efficient conveyor belts that are more energy efficient.